Ang Lee wanted to tell the officials in Anshi County that they had a great responsibility to bear. With the great power of the Tang dynasty, it was not difficult to open up the Maritime Silk Road. However, it was more important to guard this commercial route and ensure that it was smooth. If any of the links went wrong, it would inevitably bring great losses to the Silk Road.
No accidents could happen to such an important trade route. Moreover, continuous construction and investment were needed to make the trade on this commercial route more prosperous and convenient. All the important ports should be expanded to ensure that they had enough capacity to handle more goods.
Provincial Governor Chen and the other officials were naturally very happy to be recognized by a senior official like Ang Lee. This showed that their positions were extremely important. The imperial court did not send them to be officials in Anshi County to be banished. Instead, it gave them this important responsibility so that they could show their talents through their own efforts.
"It is our duty to serve the imperial court. We will do our best. We will not let any problems happen to the Maritime Silk Road. We will ensure the stability of the overseas territories of the Tang dynasty."
Provincial Governor Chen expressed his position on behalf of the officials.
Ang Lee nodded happily and said, "Good, that's very good! I am relieved to have you here. Oh, the first game is over. It's time to give out the prizes. "
He turned sideways and saw that the ten children had finished throwing all the coconuts. Naturally, the results were out.
"How are the children's results?"
Ang Lee looked at the Headmaster who was coming over and asked.
The Headmaster's face was beaming with happiness. He said, "Assistant Minister Li, these children have practiced well. The first one hit 25, and the weakest one hit 10. It's not easy to achieve this in such a short time."
"Good, very good. All the ten participants will be rewarded. However, the rewards will be given out at the end. Let's go on to the next game!"
Ang Lee said.
The Headmaster nodded and said, "Understood."
Soon, another ten children began to participate in the next game, the shuttlecock kicking game.
This competition was relatively simple. Ten students could compete at the same time. There was no need for them to compete in groups, which could save time.
The content of the competition was also relatively simple. It was to see who could kick the most number of balls within a set time. In addition, each time one fell to the ground, five balls would be deducted. If one fell after every five kicks, the score would be zero. If one kicked less than five balls each time, the score would be negative.
Many officials had never seen this sport before, so they watched it with great interest and commented from time to time.
"This is kicking shuttlecock, don't you think it's very interesting?"
Ang Lee looked at the new officials and asked.
"It's indeed quite interesting. However, it should be more suitable for these children to play. It's a bit humiliating for adults to play with this, haha!"
Governor Chen said.
Ang Lee objected, "It's fine as long as you can exercise your body. You can do it in the house, and no one will see. Isn't that great?"
"Haha! That's true. We can give it a try when we have time. Let's see if we can kick more than these kids. "
The official answered ingratiatingly.
In order to accurately determine the ranking of the competition, the duration of the competition was relatively long. If there were no mistakes, a child could easily score three to five hundred points.
Ang Lee chatted with many officials while waiting for the results of the competition. When he was thirsty, he drank some iced red tea and then continued chatting.
The competition soon ended. The teacher came over to report the results of the competition.
The gap in this match was a bit too big. The best student scored 700 points in one go, while the worst student only scored 50 points. Of course, this might be because the worst student was too nervous and made mistakes all the time, causing a lot of points to be lost.
Ang Lee casually encouraged the teacher and asked him to start the third game. This game was badminton, and it was also the game that took the longest time among all the games.
After all, badminton had both cooperative play and competition play. The cooperative play was more interesting, but at this time, it would make it difficult for both sides to receive the ball. After all, these children had not undergone much training, so it was difficult for their physical strength and reflexes to keep up.
Therefore, the 10 children would be randomly selected to cooperate with each other and let them play cooperative badminton for the audience on the stage. The more they played, the better their score would be, and the score would be counted for both of them.
After that, they would go to a place with a net and have a real one-on-one duel. They would also be randomly selected, and then be promoted and repeated.
At the beginning of the game, these new officials of the Tang Dynasty were stunned. They had never seen such a refreshing game. They felt it was very interesting and even eager to have a try. They were eager to experience it themselves.
Li An looked at the officials and said, "Everyone, you see that, right? This is badminton, which I recently invented. It has the effect of exercising the whole body. You can also play badminton after work to exercise your body. Only when you are in good health can you have more energy to serve the Tang Empire. "
"We'll definitely give it a try."
The officials responded.
The children cooperated very well. Basically, they could play seven or eight times at a time, and the worst result was three times. It could be said that it was a very good result. The viewing effect was also good. Ang Lee was very satisfied.
The winning group of children would be given the highest score and had the advantage of being the first to play. Next, they would be regrouped for the competition.
Because luck would play a part in the grouping, the competition would be divided into five groups. The final score would be determined, and the one with the highest score would be the first. Of course, luck could not be avoided. However, as long as the children were strong, they would always win in the end.
Originally, there were only four venues for the competition. However, in order to make the competition go faster, a net was temporarily installed. In this way, all the children could participate in the competition at the same time.
Two teachers in each group were responsible for recording the score to prevent one person from getting the score wrong and causing unnecessary disputes.
The competition venue was some distance away from the viewing platform. Sitting under the shed, it was difficult to see the exciting competition. Therefore, some officials left the shed and ran closer to watch the competition.
All the children who did not participate in the competition were excitedly cheering for their classmates. Many children's voices were hoarse and their foreheads were sweating. However, none of the children complained that they were tired because they were full of interest in these sports. Therefore, they did not feel tired. Instead, they felt very happy.
Ang Lee did not go close to watch the competition. Instead, he rested in the cool shed. From time to time, he drank a cup of iced red tea and chatted with the new Provincial Governor Chen about life. He felt very happy.
"I will set off early in the morning the day after tomorrow. I will leave An Shi County to you. An Shi University in the Tang Empire is the future of An Shi County. You must come to the university more often and pay more attention to the teachers and the children's studies. In the future, when the funds are abundant, we will expand the university and enroll more children. This is very important. You must keep it in mind."
Ang Lee warned.
"Assistant Minister Li, don't worry. Education is a century-old plan. I will definitely pay attention to education. In the future, I will expand the university and enroll more local children to study there."
Provincial Governor Chen promised.
Ang Lee nodded and said, "I am relieved that Provincial Governor Chen can pay attention to education. In addition to education, it is very important to build water conservancy, promote agriculture and animal husbandry, pay attention to commerce and trade, expand important ports, and fight against pirates. Each of these is very tiring. In addition, you must have enough skills to deal with the surrounding small countries. You will have a hard time."
"Overseas is far away from the Tang Empire. When I came here, I had already considered the special situation here. As an official appointed by the imperial court, I will definitely do my best."
Provincial Governor Chen said with a serious face.
Ang Lee said, "I naturally believe in Provincial Governor Chen. However, as an official overseas, it is inevitable that you will encounter many difficulties. You can naturally solve the smaller difficulties by yourself. However, if you encounter difficulties that are more difficult to solve, you must report truthfully to the imperial court and ask for their help. If it is inconvenient, you can also write to me. I will definitely help."
"That's great. If I encounter difficulties that are difficult to deal with, I will definitely ask Assistant Minister Li for advice."
Provincial Governor Chen replied very proudly.
"Come on, the weather is hot. Drink more iced red tea! This is a local specialty of An Shi County! "
Ang Lee pointed at the iced red tea and said.
Provincial Governor Chen was stunned and hurriedly asked, "This is a local specialty. Eh, I have never seen this kind of tea before."
As an official of the Tang Empire, everyone knew that the technology of making ice cubes in summer was discovered by Ang Lee. It was not difficult to make ice cubes in summer. As for the tea, they also knew about it and had drunk a lot of tea.
Ang Lee said, "A kind of tea plant grows naturally in the mountains here. I call it Ceylon Black Tea. This kind of tea has a very special taste, which is different from all the tea produced in the Tang Empire. It has its own characteristics. After adding some ice cubes, the taste will be even more different. In An Shi County, which is very hot all year round, it feels very good to drink iced red tea comfortably. This kind of tea is also very popular and has a great advantage in local distribution. Therefore, I ask the Yamen of An Shi County to monopolize the technology of making Ceylon Black Tea. Other businessmen can only plant tea plants and sell finished tea leaves. As long as you don't leak the technology, it will be very difficult for businessmen to discover the tea-frying technology. At least, they won't discover it within a few decades. In this way, the financial source of An Shi County will be guaranteed and you can also provide necessary support to the imperial court."
Planting tea plants, collecting tea leaves, and selling finished tea leaves did not require any technology. Anyone could do it. However, there was a certain degree of difficulty in frying fresh tea leaves into finished tea leaves that could be sold. If any step was not done properly, the taste of the tea would be different. Only Ang Lee knew the best tea-frying technology. Therefore, he could completely monopolize all the Ceylon Black Tea trade. However, Ang Lee was not short of money. It was also a good choice to let the local Yamen take control of the technology as a source of wealth for the local Yamen. After all, An Shi County needed money for development. It was always good to have an additional source of wealth. If it was really not used up, it could also be handed over to the national treasury to support the local construction of the Tang Empire.
"Assistant Minister Li wants to give the Yamen of An Shi County the tea-frying technology of Ceylon Black Tea?"
Governor Chen looked at Ang Lee in disbelief. His eyeballs were about to fall out of their sockets.
No matter what era it was, an official would always hope to have a rich source of wealth under his rule. In this way, whether it was the official's salary or the construction and maintenance of local public facilities, it would not be difficult. Everything could be done smoothly.
However, if there was no source of wealth under his rule, the official's life would be more difficult. He would not be able to do anything smoothly. He would not even be able to pay the salaries of the people under his rule, not to mention the welfare benefits. The officials themselves would not be able to earn much money.
It was precisely for this reason that the officials liked to work in economically developed and wealthy places instead of working in poor places. It was easier to work as an official in a wealthy place. Not only would it be easier to make achievements, but they would also be able to earn a lot of money. It could be said that it was a good thing to kill two birds with one stone.
In many areas in the future, because important units that could generate wealth were taken away, it would often cause quite a bit of turmoil. Even in different areas of the same city, due to the different taxes on wealth, there would be a huge difference in the salary of government personnel working in the same job. The difference could even be as high as double. From this, it could be seen that the local tax revenue was important. This was related to the livelihood of many people.
Many officials had to travel over land and water to overseas, which was far away from their homeland. It was more difficult for them. If their income was too low, it would cause their welfare income to decrease. Naturally, their enthusiasm for work would decrease and their standard of living would also decrease.
The main reason why Ang Lee gave the tea-frying technology of Ceylon Black Tea to the Yamen of An Shi County was naturally not to improve the welfare of the local officials. Instead, it was to allow the Yamen of An Shi County to have more money to carry out the necessary construction and raise the standard of living of the officials.
As the tea-frying technology was related to the income of the Yamen of An Shi County, Ang Lee had enough reason to believe that the local officials would definitely strictly protect this technology and not let businessmen get their hands on it.
However, if the official in charge of the tea-frying technology conspired with other officials to secretly stir up the tea in a hidden place to seek personal benefits, it would be worse. Therefore, some precautions had to be taken first.
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